Weekly Franciscan reflections

Reflection for week of 8 June, 2025

Owning vs stewarding

North American society is particularly consumeristic. Our focus on material wealth creeps into our culture and interpersonal relationships, too. We often judge and are judged by the amount of money we have or the amount and value of the possessions we have. Who has the best car? The largest house? The fanciest clothes?

For a Christian, it is important that we work, earn, and provide for ourselves and our families, but we live with the mindset that we do not own these things. Rather, they are given to us by God for our use while we are here on earth. Wealth itself is not a bad thing, but it should be understood and used properly.

Consider the parable in which Jesus tells his followers about the rich man who has more from a harvest than he can store. The man decides to build bigger barns and keep the grain so that he will be comfortable for many years. But God intervenes and calls him a fool because he will die that night, and who will get all the possessions? All that grain will be wasted, when he could have used it for good.

A steward does not own the property that they have. They manage it. They use it. Christians are called to use God’s gifts in ways that benefit others as well as ourselves. Legally, we own things, but spiritually, all is gift.

This week, let us look at what we have and ask ourselves if we are being good stewards of what God has given to us.